KEY POINTS:
HOUSTON - Hillary Clinton likes to remind Texans that she first came here to ask for their votes in 1972 as a young Democratic campaign worker.
"She's got history in Texas," said Doug Hattaway, a Clinton adviser who worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000.
But her rival, Barack Obama, has more recent history on his side -- 10 straight wins in state votes that have turned him from underdog into the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to run for the White House in November's election.
With its 228 delegates to the Democratic convention up for grabs on March 4, Texas is crucial to Clinton's hopes of staying in the U.S. presidential race. If Obama pulls off a victory in Texas, as well as Ohio, which votes on the same day, his winning streak could be unstoppable.
Clinton has tried to play down the idea that March 4 is make or break for her, pointing out on Saturday there are plenty of states ahead and that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, did not win the Democratic nomination until June of 1992.
Hattaway said she was playing to win. "We're still virtually tied in the delegate count and there's not likely to be a huge shift in that after Ohio and Texas," he told Reuters.
With neither candidate likely to secure the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination outright before the convention, a close result in Texas and Ohio, or a win for Clinton, would leave everything still in play. But if she were to lose badly, pressure would increase for her to quit the race.
Clinton's history in Texas dates from 1972, when she worked on Democrat George McGovern's presidential campaign registering voters. Her team also points to the popularity of former President Clinton among Hispanic voters, a quarter of the Texas electorate.
Obama's state director for Texas, Adrian Saenz, said the campaign understood the bar was high because of the Clintons' history and popularity. He said Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president if elected, had spread his resources throughout the state to counter Clinton's strength, especially among Hispanics.
"The notion was that Senator Clinton was really strong in south Texas and that was Clinton country down there," he said. "She was down there this week and drew a crowd. We were down there a couple days later and drew a crowd that was almost twice as big."
Saenz said Obama's campaign had some 125,000 volunteers statewide and a few hundred volunteers had recently come in from other states.
Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first woman president if elected, launched two new ads on Saturday that will play statewide. One focused on her message that Obama is all talk and no action: "In Texas it's better done than said."
On Saturday, Clinton said it was common knowledge Obama had raised more money than she did in January, which was reflected in the results -- apparently acknowledging reports that she did not spend enough on advertising in states such as Wisconsin.
"As I think everybody knows we've been competing hard but we've not been able to compete everywhere. We now have the resources to do exactly that," Clinton told reporters in Ohio.
She said her campaign was raising $1 million a day on the Internet and has fund-raisers in Boston and Washington in the coming days before returning to Ohio and Texas to campaign.
Saenz said Obama's campaign started ads in Texas soon after the February 5 "Super Tuesday" contests among 24 states, much earlier than Clinton. "Folks understand that Texas is going to matter a lot more in who wins the nomination than it has before, than it has in a long time," he said.
Bill Clinton has been campaigning in Texas in recent days and will continue, Hattaway said, and the Clintons' daughter Chelsea will focus on young voters. Mobilizing Latino voters would be important for Clinton, he said.
Hattaway said the fact that a third of the delegates will be allocated at a caucus after the popular vote was a challenge since the format tended to disenfranchise lower income voters and working mothers.
"Those have tended to be our voters," he said.
Obama has a good history in caucus states where grass-roots organization and canvassing are key to the process that involves people gathering in groups to choose their candidates.
- REUTERS
